Electricity and Control April 2020

MEASUREMENT + INSTRUMENTATION

Calibration management increases plant availability

Mobile flow rigs enable the efficient calibration of flowmeters on a site and can thus increase the instrumentation’s availability.Through a results-based calibration contract between Endress+Hauser and a major biotechnology plant, the calibration of instrumentation at the plant has been simplified, and overall time and costs entailed have been reduced.

The challenge The site accommodates several business units. Due to their independent operation and separate resources, the internal management of the calibration of the more than 1 000 devices used on the site was not optimised. There was a lack of: cost control, monitoring of the respective suppliers’ presence on the site, and optimisation of internal resources. In addition, several standards were used, complicating the calibration exercise further. The solution To address this problem, in agreement with the biotechnology company, Endress+Hauser took on the responsibility of managing and executing the whole calibration process of most of the devices operating on the site. In the scope of the results-based contract, it set up the following systems and standards for the plant and is now operating in line with these: - Common standards and processes site-wide - Centralised coordination and workflow management - Resource sharing to match workload variations - Reporting meetings at regular intervals - Relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) - A continuous improvement approach. The contract and agreed operational implementation enables full transparency for management and in regard to total costs of calibration.

At a glance ■ Some of the key benefits of this contract include:

- A significant decrease of overall calibration costs after three years - 10% reduction in calibration time, allowing higher process availability - Over 80% of the time previously spent by internal resources on calibration has been reallocated to the core business - Full transparency in the management of the performed actions.

Optimised calibration All internal calibration work was shifted to Endress+Hauser. Entrustedwith themanagement of calibrationoperations and the actual execution of calibration activities, it implemented KPIs to provide full transparency to management of the performed actions, to monitor non-conformities, and to define a corrective action/preventive action (CAPA) plan, providing a basis for continuous improvement of operations. The KPIs are updated periodically, by agreement, during meetings involving experts from both parties. Expertise at hand One of the customer’s objectives was to have resources at hand for technical support. With a dedicated team from Endress+Hauser on-site full-time, the internal resources benefit at all or any time from the experienced and skilled staff. The technical support covers all aspects of calibration – including support in the resolution of non- conformities – as well as standardisation (where a device has to be renewed, for example) and obsolescence (via a recapitalisation plan). Simplifying operations The smooth operation of this ongoing calibration contract requires Endress+Hauser to work in an integrated way with the customer, in line with the customer’s internal processes and quality management systems. □

Calibration management of multiple instruments on complex sites helps optimise processes and contain costs.

For more information visit: www.endress.com

Electricity + Control APRIL 2020

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